"Never hide things from hard-core thinkers. They get more aggravated, more provoked by confusion than the most painful truths."
Tough beta cop, Wang Yibo, wakes up one morning with a hangover and some very vague memories of the previous night. One o...
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ZHAN POV
I headed out to my car and took off. I knew exactly where I was going and what I was going to do when I got there. I was still a little shocked that Yibo had lied about his parents like that, but I wasn't going to bring it up. As much as I wanted to give him a smack on the head for being such a wuss with the captain, and everyone at the precinct, I knew how hard this had to be for him.
What I really couldn't wait to see was the look on his face when I told him about the new policy. I knew he would be relieved to know that the captain would take him back, no matter what his status was.
I knocked on the door a couple times before I heard Yibo shuffling around inside.
"Who's there?"
he asked through the door after I knocked for the third time.
"It's me. Please let me in, Yibo. I need to talk to you."
"It's not a good time," he said through the door again.
"Yibo, come on,"
I said, raising my voice so that it boomed down the hall.
"We need to talk. Why are you doing this?"
"All right."
The door opened up a crack and I pushed it open the rest of the way so that I could enter. And there he was, in nothing but a huge T-shirt that almost came down to his knees.
"What are you wearing?" I asked as I closed the door behind me. I looked around the living room and was shocked to see the state it was in. The entire apartment was a mess. There were Chinese food containers everywhere and piles of clothes all over the floor. It looked like Yibo had taken all the clothes he owned out of his closet and scattered them over every inch of his apartment.
I watched as Yibo's glassy, tear-filled eyes moved down so that he was looking at the shirt he was wearing.
"It's a stupid T-shirt my cousin sent me for my birthday a couple years ago. I guess he got the size wrong when he ordered it."
"I'll say. It's enormous. It looks like you're wearing a dress."
"Well, it's the only thing that fits me anymore, Zhan!"
Yibo yelled as he pulled a couple of tissues out of a box he had tucked under one arm. He wiped some tears off his face and blew his nose, then tossed the tissues on the floor.
"You have no idea what this has been like for me! You have no idea what it's like to have everything taken away from you! First my parents, and now my whole freaking identity! I was a laughing stock at work yesterday!"
"Yibo, you haven't lost anything. Please, listen to me. I talked to the captain—"
"You know what's going to happen if the captain finds out the real reason I took a leave of absence, don't you?" Yibo said, pulling more tissues out of the box, then throwing them onto the floor once he used them.